This is the first of our month of devotions tied to our “Extravagant Generosity” stewardship campaign. There will be a new post tied to stewardship and what it means to give freely. Today we begin with a look at Genesis 1:26-28.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the first of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (NIV).
Genesis tells us an important truth. That truth is God created us to reflect the Lord’s very own image. We were made to reflect God’s love, peace, holiness, grace, and joy. It is one of the most beautiful aspects of the creation narrative of Genesis 1.
The other beautiful, as well as challenging, nature of the creation story is our responsibility that is tied to this image. We are called to be caretakers of what God has created. In other words, we are called to be stewards of the very creation that God has made.
There are so many ways to look at this. We are called to care for ourselves and make sure we have time for rest and enjoyment. We are called to take care of the natural resources that are all around us. At the same time, we are also called to care for the resources that God has provided us with.
It is this aspect that I want to focus on. We are not the providers of our resources, but indeed we are the caretakers of God’s resources. What we have is not our own, but was first God’s very own. Everything we have is a gift given to us by the Lord. Our money, homes, land, cars, clothes, toys, and other things are truly gifts from God.
Because of this the way we care for these things are a reflection of our love of God. The essence of good stewardship is to remember that what we have is not ours, but is an example of God’s love.
What would change about how we see our things if we saw them as God’s? How would we do better with our finances, the care of our homes, or future planning if we saw our resources as gifts from God?
Shannon Blosser 